“Bahá’u’lláh, The Return of Joseph”: Web Talk for September 25

You will want to sign up now for Dr. Todd Lawson’s September 25 talk on “Bahá’u’lláh, The Return of Joseph.” As usual, the Web Talk will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (11 a.m. Pacific, 8 p.m. Western European time).

Dr. Lawson says that “the story of Joseph in the Qur’an has a profoundly spiritual and historical connection with the Bahá’í Faith. We may say that the Bahá’í Faith began with the Báb’s explanation of that sura during the fateful meeting with Mulla Husayn on the evening of May 22, 1844. Indeed, the Báb dates the beginning of the new dispensation from the moment the truth of his words of explanation penetrated the heart and mind of his guest.”

Dr. Lawson goes on to ask, “How does the spiritual reality of Joseph continue to function in and determine the faith and teachings of Bahá’ís and the ethos of the Bahá’í Faith?” Answers to this question, he says “will provide the substance of this webinar.”

Dr. Lawson is Professor Emeritus of Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto. He has been a Bahá’í since 1968 and has been a member since 1975 of the Association for Bahá’í studies, which has awarded him the distinguished book award for his study of the Qayyúm al-Asmá, Gnostic apocalypse in Islam (published by Routledge in 2012 under the title Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam: Qur’an, Exegesis, Messianism, and the Literary Origins of the Babi Religion). Lawson has published numerous articles and books on the relationship between the Bahá’í Faith and Islam, Qur’an commentary, and Sufism and Shi’ism. He lives in Montreal with his wife, daughter, and grandchildren.